A Power Magazine is a free magazine providing information of daily life especially in support of foreigners who either have interest in Japan or on a visit in Japan as, for example, international students. Their contents include information on job-hunting, house renting, and visa application, as well as Japanese culture. Those contents are so close to daily life that they have attracted the attention of foreigners who are interested in Japan, and thus expanding its influence among them.

The interviewer on characteristics of the website: ‘ Our uniqueness lies in the fact that we are providing contents not only in Japanese, but also in English, Chinese and Korean. This is out of the consideration that any foreigner who is interested in Japan can have direct access to our contents, not to mention those who are currently staying in Japan, say, as international students.

nanapi is information website featuring ‘how to’, where ‘life recipe’ is shared and enjoyed. ‘Life recipe’ is, like cooking recipe, small tips that make people’s life more convenient. ‘Recipes’ include important manners in daily life, tips for easy saving and house cleaning, to name a few. Those recipes are written by ordinary internet users who have passed the screening of Rocketstart Company. Users earn rewards by providing their own recipes, which is how the system works.

As for the uniqueness of the website, the interviewer said: ‘ What we put emphasis on is information that will be equally useful 3 years later, not those that just come and go.’

Staff numbers

Who’s creating the content

editing staff 30％

sales/marketing 10％

system engineer/designer 15％

others (web producer, director, etc.) 45%

How they make money

Revenue models and sustainability

Advertising Revenue

In terms of method: Ad Networks, Cost per Click (CPC) and Sponsored link are used.

Other Revenue

Reception of investment and funding 0.33 billion yen

How much is your yearly or monthly revenue?

Not disclosed.

What would be the most important thing on your road to sustainability?

We think it important to maintain our competence in order to win over our rivals, whether faced with competition or entrance of other companies. I think our competence lies in our database of ‘how-to’ and we are aiming at the largest size of database among Japan by the time of March 2012.

RocketNews24 is a popular website that enjoys a high rate of sharing among Japanese social networking site users. Contents tend to lean towards entertainment, but by also including hard news and other related issues, we arouse journalistic debate in a paradoxical manner.

The interviewee on characteristics of the website:

‘RocketNews24 is a news website dealing with strange, interesting news and happenings on the Internet, etc., both in Japan and abroad. In particular, we publish news that people are likely to share on social networking sites.’

‘Our news sources not only include online materials, but also features on-the-ground research, primarily in Japan and other Asian countries. We place emphasis on giving the reader that unique feeling of actually being on the spot. In this kind of reporting, our journalists are more likely to appear in front of the camera.’

MedCity Media is to life science what TechCrunch and GigaOm are to technology: a destination portal (MedCityNews.com) for the latest on innovation and B2B insight. Our readers are the ones everyone wants: entrepreneurs, C-level hospital executives, investors and the innovation ecosystem. Our business model builds better, deeper and more lucrative relationships with customers because we leverage our content and our audience better than our peers.

Patient Power produces audio and video interview programs on serious medical topics, relying on interviews with renowned experts and inspiring patients. It is supported financially by major medical centers, through limited advertising, and unrestricted educational grants from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Patients with illnesses such as cancers and chronic conditions rely on their programs to become better informed about the latest news for their condition.

Asymco is a technology oriented blog and business, owned by a former Nokia analyst Horace Dediu, who is based in Helsinki, Finland. The blog has a large international audience and it has been cited by business and technology publications such as Fortune, Forbes and Wired, for example. Mr. Dediu is very well-respected especially as an Apple analyst.

Mr. Dediu says the contents of his blog is analysis, not journalism. It’s not meant to be news or commentary. It’s meant to be taking those news and data, public information, and trying to interpret them. Initially, he planned to do app development, and the blog was intended as a way to promote that business. However, soon he found out that the type of work that was requested from the blog turned out to be more management consulting. He obtained some consulting engagements within three months from starting the blog and that is still the primary source of income for him.

“Demotix is an online platform that allows anyone anywhere to upload their news, video and images. We vet that material and then license it on to mainstream media. Essentially we are a ‘citizen journalism AP’ (= newswire). We split the revenue from sales 50/50 with our contributors.

On the other hand, we are increasingly becoming also a news publisher. Our secondary business model, as of very recently, is advertising revenue on Demotix.com as a news site. In January this year we were getting about 1,3 million page views a month, which is what prompted us to bring on advertising revenue. We share that with our contributors, so that they get 80% and Demotix gets 20%.

“Media Street Apps is a start-up business developing a web application called Media Street, which is a software application to run local websites. Our case study pilot site is for my local area, King’s Road, in Chelsea, London (kingsroad.co.uk). Our second local website is fulhamroad.co.uk.

Any domain name can be plugged into the Media Street app. That means a local news website can be created very quickly. I can expand into other areas of London without having to reinvent the wheel. We can also license the app to others, but that’s not in my six-month business plan. I’m trying to nail and finish my two pilot sites first.

“Blottr is a citizen journalism news service that enables anyone to capture, report and collaborate on news they are witnessing from mobile to web instantly.

When I was watching the atrocities of 9/11 unfold, I was surprised it took CNN as long as it did to break the coverage of what was going on. Yet there were hundreds of people capturing the footage without an outlet for it. Then, maybe 2 years ago, I saw a documentary using that footage the citizens had been capturing, and it was really powerful – raw, really engaging. It got me thinking that there’s got to be a better way to enable people on the scene to report the news. I’m also a news junkie, I really love news. Here in the UK paywalls are going up and the mainstream media is laying off lots of editorial staff. So I thought this is probably a really good time to launch a service like Blottr.